North Carolina Injury Lawyer Blog

In Buncombe County Superior Court, a man has filed a North Carolina child sex abuse lawsuit seeking damages for the physical and emotional abuse he says he allegedly suffered as a teenager at the hands of two priests at the Basilica of St. Lawrence in Asheville. One of the priests that he names as his perpetrator, pastor Father Justine Paul Pechulis, died in 1983. The other priest he says molested him is retired Father John McCole.

The defendants named in the North Carolina clergy sexual abuse lawsuit are the Diocese of Charlotte and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. The plaintiff, Steven Souder, claims that church officials took part in a conspiracy to protect pedophile priests, including McCole and Pechulis.

Souder, who used to be an altar boy, says that the two priests forced him to take part in group oral sex while on a trip to Asheville during the 1970’s. He accuses McCole of taking advantage of him and sexually abusing him several times. McCole denies the alleged abuse incidents ever happened. Souder’s complaint also claims that when he reported the abuse to a higher ranking clergy member, he was told that what was happening to him wasn’t inappropriate.

The plaintiff, who suffers from mental illness, says he repressed the memories of the abuse for years until 2007 when the archdiocese sent him a letter talking about clergy sex abuse.

North Carolina law doesn’t count the time when a person’s memories of sexual abuse were repressed toward the statute of limitations for filing sexual abuse lawsuits. The statute of limitations only begins running after the memories have been recovered.

Clergy Sex Abuse
In the last seven years, hundreds of people have come forward claiming that priests sexually abused them. Even as the clergy sex abuse scandal rocked the United States, victims in other countries also stepped forward to make similar allegations against the priests in the areas where they lived. The leaders of the Catholic Church have been accused of covering up the abuse incidents for decades, which has allowed pedophile priests to strike at new victims over and over again.

Sexual abuse of any kind causes serious personal injury to victims and their families and can be grounds for a North Carolina personal injury lawsuit.

'70s altar boy alleges abuse & that Krol abetted cover-up, Philadelphia Daily News, June 2, 2009

Sex abuse lawsuit names deceased Asheville priest, Citizen-Times, June 2, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Spotlight Abuse in the Catholic Church, The Boston Globe

Basilica of St. Lawrence

A prominent North Carolina pediatrician accused of child sexual abuse has signed a consent order signaling his agreement to stop practicing medicine in this state or anywhere else. The North Carolina medical board approved the consent order against Dr. Mel Levine on Friday. Levine, who had voluntarily suspended his license last April, is a defendant in a number of child sex abuse lawsuits. He continues to maintain his innocence.

Levine, 69, is accused of sexually molesting young boys while examining them. While the North Carolina Medical Board had been ready to provide key testimony claiming that Levine had performed genital exams on five patients without the presence of a chaperone or a parent and that these exams were not medically indicated or properly documented, Levine’s attorney says his client had also been ready to give testimony that the exams were medically indicated and within the bounds of standard medical practice.

Complaints about Levine go back more than 20 years. One child sex abuse lawsuit, filed against the doctor last year, accuses him of molesting at least seven boys. The plaintiff, who says Levine sexually abused him beginning when he was an 8-year-old boy during the 80’s, says the doctor engaged in masturbation, genital fondling, and other acts of sexual assault with him during unnecessary physical exams.

Child Sexual Abuse by Physicians
Physicians are supposed to provide patients with a certain level of medical care. Failure to provide that care or abuse of that care by physically or sexually assaulting a patient could be grounds for a North Carolina medical malpractice claim or a child sexual abuse lawsuit.

Pediatrician Agrees to Stop Practicing After Abuse Charges, New York TImes, March 20, 2009

Physician accused of sex abuse of children, Boston.com, April 1, 2008

Related Web Resources:
Eight Common Myths about Child Sexual Abuse, The Leadership Council

Sexual Abuse by Medical Professionals, WebMD.com

Continue reading "North Carolina Pediatrician Accused of Child Sex Abuse Agrees to Stop Practicing Medicine Forever" »

In North Carolina, a man who says that he was sexually abused by a Catholic priest when he was 14 years old is suing the Catholic Diocese of Charlotte and Reverend Robert Yurgel for personal injury. The plaintiff, now 24, says the abuse began in 1999 when he was an altar boy at St. Matthew Catholic Church.

According to the North Carolina sex abuse lawsuit, Yurgel initiated sexual contact with the plaintiff many times, with a number of the abuse incidents occurring on diocesan property (including Yurgel’s office at St Matthew church in Ballantyne, the Our Lady of Consolation Catholic Church rectory in Charlotte, and in a parked car at St. Michael Catholic Church in Gastonia). The plaintiff says that he was afraid to report the sex abuse because of Yurgel’s close relationship with the teen’s family and role as a spiritual advisor.

In 2007, the plaintiff finally told his sister and mental health professionals about the abuse. However, his lawsuit contends that the Diocese of Charlotte knew as far back as 1999 that Yurgel was abusing him after an email from the plaintiff expressing his love to the priest was discovered.

Following the discovery of the email, the plaintiff says that Bishop William Curlin arranged a “rush transfer” with the Capuchin Franciscan Friars and reassigned Yurgel to New Jersey. The Diocese of Charlotte denies that the rush transfer occurred.

Yurgel, 44, was arrested in April. He faces criminal charges of five counts of taking indecent liberties with a child and two counts of statutory sex offense. He is currently free on bond.

Sexual Abuse Lawsuits
If you or someone you love was a victim of sexual abuse, you should speak with a sexual abuse lawyer to determine if you have grounds to file a North Carolina personal injury claim or lawsuit. In certain instances, an adult who was sexually abused as a child may still be able to file a claim against his or her abuser.

Former altar boy sues priest, diocese, CharlotteObserver.com, October 21, 2008

Priest faces North Carolina justice, NorthJersey.com, April 5, 2008

Related Web Resources:

Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte

Abuse in the Catholic Church, The Boston Globe

Dr. Mel Levine, a doctor and adjunct professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Medicine has asked the North Carolina Medical Board to put his medical license to practice medicine in the state in inactive status.

Dr. Levine is currently the defendant in personal injury lawsuits filed against him by several victims that are accusing him of sexual abusing them when they were young boys and patients at Children’s Hospital Boston in Massachusetts.

Dr. Levine says he is innocent of the allegations and his attorney says that the request to suspend his license is not an acknowledgement of wrongdoing. Levine has also volunteered to stop seeing patients at UNC until the sex abuse allegations are resolved.

Dr. Levine is the author of “A Mind at a Time” and other books about learning disabilities. Prior to transferring to UNC, he was the chief of ambulatory pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Boston.

The lawsuit accuses Dr. Levine of sexually abusing a boy from the time he was 8, in 1980, until 1985. He is also accused of sexually abusing six other boys, 5 to 13 years old, from 1967 to 1984. Some of these boys, now men, have also filed lawsuits against Dr. Levine.

A sex abuse lawyer for five of the men says that his clients waited to file their lawsuits because they were ashamed of the abuse or had suppressed the memories for years.

If you or your child was the victim of child sexual abuse by a teacher, doctor, coach, counselor, doctor, camp counselor, therapist, day care worker, a priest, or anyone else, you may be able to sue the perpetrator in civil court for personal injury damages.

A victim of sexual abuse may sustain physical as well as emotional injuries that can take its toll on the life of the victim and their loved ones. One of our North Carolina and South Carolina sexual abuse lawyers would be happy to speak with you to discuss your legal options.

Suit Accuses Pediatrician of Abuse, The New York Times, April 8, 2008

Doctor stops seeing patients after lawsuit, The Daily Tar Heel, April 8, 2008

Related Web Resources:

Biography of Dr. Mel Levine

UNC School of Medicine

Continue reading " UNC Pediatrician Being Sued For Sex Abuse Asks North Carolina Medical Board to Suspend His Medical License " »

A North Carolina family is suing Jimmie Grubbs, a former Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools teacher and the school district for the sex abuse of their son, who is still a minor.

If you or your child was molested by a teacher, a coach, a priest, a counselor, a therapist, a doctor, or a family member, you may have grounds to file a sex abuse lawsuit against the negligent party.

Sexual abuse can lead to traumatic physical, psychological, and emotional injuries that can take years and lots of therapy to recover from. Depression, social withdrawal, eating disorders, anxiety attacks, sexual problems, and suicide are some of the aftereffects of sexual abuse.

Jimmie Grubbs, a 67-year-old language arts teacher from Huntersville, is serving a 20-year-prison sentence on charges that he molested children from 2002 to 2006. Investigators, however, say they believe that he has been abusing children for decades. According to federal prosecutors, Grubbs took children from North Carolina to South Carolina (Columbia and Myrtle Beach), where he intended to sexually abuse them.

Grubbs was a language arts teacher at Bradley Middle School when he resigned in May 2005.

The Associated Press says that from 2001 to 2006, 123 teachers lost their licenses. 91 of those revocations were due to sexual misconduct. From 2001 to 2005, 2570 educators were investigated on allegations of sexual misconduct. 69% of the cases involved young victims. At least 446 of the sexually abusive teachers molested more than one person.

Unfortunately, the majority of abuse cases involving teachers go unreported because children are too scared to or unable to report that they were abused.

A personal injury lawyer can help you obtain compensation for psychological, physical, and emotional pain and suffering, as well as costs associated with medical expenses, therapy, and any permanent or temporary impairments caused by the abuse.

Teachers are entrusted to ensure that the children who come to them grow as human beings through the education that they receive from them in the classrooms. When that trust is violated and a child is molested or raped by the teacher or becomes sexually involved with the teacher as a result, the teacher can be held civilly liable by the injured party and/or his/her family, as well as criminally liable by the criminal justice system.

Family sues schools, Grubbs, Charlotte.com, November 16, 2007

AP: Sexual Misconduct Plagues U.S. Schools, ABC News.com, October 21, 2007

Related Web Resources:

Sex Abuse by Teachers Said Worse Than Catholic Church, Newsmax.com, April 5, 2004

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools

Continue reading "North Carolina Family Sues Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Teacher and District for Sex Abuse" »